Sarah Vaughan "Live at Rosy's"

This article was first published at Blogcritics

If, like me, you can never have too much Sarah Vaughan, you’re in for a treat. Due for a March 25^th release from Resonance Records is a two-CD set of the jazz diva’s previously unreleased 1978 live session recorded at Rosy’s Jazz Club in New Orleans for the National Public Radio program Jazz Alive! She is accompanied on the gig by Carl Schroeder on piano, Walter Booker on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums.

Sarah Vaughan Live at Rosy’s has the singer at the top of her game. A consummate musician, she plays her voice like the magnificent instrument it is. Her song readings are excitingly inventive. She takes a classic up-tempo piece like “Fascinating Rhythm” and playfully finds a variety of multiple fascinating rhythms. It is an interpretive tour de force, while a classic ballad like “My Funny Valentine” is vocally rich like fine cognac.

 But you don’t need me to tell you that Sarah Vaughan can sing, this is one of the truly greats. And on two CD’s with 20 songs, each and every track is a winner. Beginning with “I’ll Remember April,” and running through tunes like “East of the Sun (and West of the Moon),” “Somebody Loves Me,” “Poor Butterfly,” and “Send in the Clowns”—and that’s only from Disc one—she takes these standards and not only makes them her own, but stamps them indelibly with her name. Meanwhile highlights of the second disc include “The Man I Love,” ”I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good,” and a stellar version of “If You Went Away.”

Jazz singing doesn’t come any better than Sarah Vaughan. What she does with a song is magic, and pro that she is, she makes it sound effortless. In an essay by James Gavin included in the 36 page booklet that serves as the liner notes for the set, he quotes the singer: “’I don’t know what I’m doin’!’ she said ‘I just get onstage and sing. I don’t think about how I’m going to do it—it’s too complicated.’” Modesty aside, this is a singer who knows how to make the most out of her natural talent: the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.

Not only does she sing, but the set includes some of her banter with the audience.  There is some of her standard patter with the introduction of her trio. But perhaps the most interesting bit comes when someone shouts out a request for the Ella Fitzgerald classic “A-tisket, A-tasket,” and after joking that they have mistaken her for another singer, Vaughan treats it as a challenge and has some fun with it. Sassy is a pro. She knew how to work an audience, a skill singers today might want to emulate.

Soon after the release of the album the U. S. Post Office will be issuing a commemorative forever stamp honoring the singer. A ceremony will take place at the Sarah Vaughan Concert Hall at Newark Symphony Hall, 1020 Broad Street, Newark, N.J., at 11:00am, March 29^th, 2016^th.

Music Review: Cynthia Felton - Freedom Jazz Dance

This article was first published at Blogcritics

The first time you hear Freedom Jazz Dance, the latest album from Cynthia Felton you will be impressed by the purity of her vocals and her command of the jazz idiom. The more you listen, the more impressed you will be. This is a vocalist steeped in tradition.  She understands the contributions of the ladies of past generations, and she understands the need to build upon them.  She understands that the true artist needs to find her own voice. And if Freedom Jazz Dance is any indication she has found it, and jazz fans are going to be very glad she has.

The album's 12 tracks, she tells us in the liner notes, are a "collection of my favorite standards to sing."  It won't take long for them to become a collection of your favorite standards to listen to.  She starts with an impassioned a cappella version of the spiritual "Oh Freedom" in a nod to the gospel roots of jazz, before morphing into innovative takes on the Paul Desmond, Dave Brubeck classic "Take Five" and the Rogers and Hart perennial "My Funny Valentine." "Take Five" features some nice tenor sax work from Ernie Watts, and "Valentine" opens with the solo trumpet of Wallace Roney and features some interesting bass 'improv' from Robert Hurst.  A variety of different musicians accompany the singer on the various tracks.

"Better Than Anything" is one of the less well known pieces on the disc; it gives the singer the opportunity to swing the blues and add a little scat. Cyrus Chestnut adds a sweet piano solo and Nolan Shaheed is on the trumpet. "My Love Is" and Charles Mingus's "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love" two more less familiar tunes follow, and Felton's performance has to make you wonder why they aren't heard more often. 

"Close Your Eyes" opens lullaby-like with Hurst's bass and Felton's soft vocal, before she begins to swing with a straight ahead vibel leading to a guitar solo from Ronald Muldrow, and some additional scatting.  The old Nat 'King' Cole hit "Nature Boy" gets a little Latin American vibe from Felton. Patrice Rushen handles the piano and Terri Lyne Carrington the drums. Felton comes in at the end and wails to a dynamite climax.  It is one of the album's many highlights. The Kurt Weill classic ballad "Lost in the Stars" gets a dynamic treatment from Felton.  This is followed by a wild romp through Ray Noble's "Cherokee" accompanied by Edwin Livingston's bass and Nolan Shaheed's trumpet.  The Bergman Legrand ballad "What Are you Doing the Rest of Your Life?" follows and the album ends with its title song, "Freedom Jazz Dance." The first gets an eloquent atmospheric treatment from the singer; the second is a rhythmic celebration with some strong piano solo work from John Beasley. Lorca Hart drives it forward on the drums.  It is a real tour de force.

Cynthia Felton's Freedom Jazz Dance is as fine a jazz album as you're likely to come across for the rest of the year.  She is the kind of singer that can take a great song and make it her own.  Listen to her version of "Cherokee," and if it isn't heresy, it may well make you forget Charlie Barnett.  Her "Nature Boy" will give the 'King' a run for his money.